I walked through the interior space, and outside along the roof top, with Eric Peterson of Symmes Ma

In June I received a call from Robin Brown, with whom I worked on the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, of Boston.  I was the senior designer of that project while at CBT Childs Bertman Tseckares Inc., architects.  In fact, it was perhaps the last building built of those that I designed before I left architecture and started my illustration studio. As with many projects, what I designed, and what was built, had a divergence.  But enough of it is still there of my work that I count it among my projects. alaska cruises and vacations Here s an very old study I did for the Mandarin, during the public approvals process, ca.2001.
While working on it, I got a comment from someone alaska cruises and vacations that computers were really amazing, because otherwise it would have been impossible to figure out the shadow from that arching glass canopy.  I wasn t very successful at explaining to them that it was 2d, not a model, and that Photoshop alaska cruises and vacations did not calculate anything related to shadows, alaska cruises and vacations but I did.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Robin had been investigating the idea of developing a roof top deck and bar at the Park Plaza Hotel.  It s an enviable location, with roof-top views of the Public Garden, the Arlington Street alaska cruises and vacations Church, Old and new John Hancock Towers .
I walked through the interior space, and outside along the roof top, with Eric Peterson of Symmes Maini McKee Associates of Cambridge.  They and design architects Arquitectonica are studying the feasibility of the concept. There were, at the time, only rough indications from their model of a furnishing plan for tables, and defining the extent of the roof deck.
There was not much else available to work from at that point. Just see what you can come up with. Robin wanted something that would speak to the energy level of the project, that captured the fantastic location, and which maybe conveyed what it would be like to be under the sky at night in the middle of Boston with such a vantage point.
Sometimes, with an existing space, you can grab a few well-considered shots and simply sketch right over them quickly.  And Robin needed these quickly (day and a half, two days max.).  But this time it looked like a tall order to grab a few photos and just sketch away.  And we wanted the finals sketches to be taken at night, too. I took a few panorama photographs, doctored them a bit, removed alaska cruises and vacations the equipment, and painted away.
Necessarily, there isn t a lot of there there.  Just messy indications and highlights, more sketchy than specific.  Here s a shot enlarged to the point where it falls apart.  The idea isn t to zoom in and see detail, it s to imply detail when zoomed out.
An enlarged detail, past full size. Really nothing here beyond a few strokes and indications of color and highlights. My favorite is her apple-tini. alaska cruises and vacations Nothing there but a green triangle and three highlights.
The parapets of the existing condition were chest high. Assuming the deck was built to be elevated about much of the existing piping, it became alaska cruises and vacations clear that the parapets could be brought to below eye-level, vastly improving the view. Instead of looking into a brick parapet, you d be overlooking the Public Garden.  I introduced a continuous boxwood hedge and glass rail, lit from below, with the seating in front of that. This kept us back from the parapet, alaska cruises and vacations reducing any potential vertigo (we don t want anyone looking over to the street below) and gave a better sense of enclosure alaska cruises and vacations while still preserving the view.
Numerous seating configurations scale the roof top down to more intimately sized areas, a glass rail preserves alaska cruises and vacations the view, and is set back from the parapet by a low boxwood hedge, lit from below. The Zakim bridge is beyond, left.
An existing penthouse of brick is to remain, and will contain alaska cruises and vacations the elevator lobby, bar, and service areas.  The industrial nature of the older original equipment will be cleaned and restored, alaska cruises and vacations left in place, with perhaps a tensile structure appended in a way that covers the doors out onto the roof terrace.
What I enjoy about being able to share these in greater depth on a blog, is that I can explain how they are developed, and convey what the REAL effort can often be.  It s not enough to simply paint a picture of something from information provided.  It s sometimes more about synthesizing many things: incomplete designs; verbal descriptions; and quirky design complications; and delivering something which expresses the designers alaska cruises and vacations and the clients ultimate intent and which speaks to the big idea.